Websites of particular interest

[Andreas]

Site by the same chap who gave us the Orne Bridgehead, following the same pattern and with identical structure.

Obviously it is about the 'other' major airborne battle the British Army fought in WW2.

http://www.arnhemarchive.org/

Thanks again to JonS for this one!

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

The Hyperwar project by Patrick Clancey has some interesting material of relevance online. I really recommend to everyone to check it:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/about.html

In particular the section about the war in the Atlantic:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Atlantic/index.html

This contains some info about convoy battles and the use of Ultra, as well as useful links to e.g. the history section of the USCG. There is also a USN manual regarding Axis subs:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USN/ref ... index.html

The early war section:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/ETO/Open/index.html

Contains a complete transcription of Ellis' official history (with broken links to the maps, unfortunately), and Alanbrooke's report on the battle in the London Gazette. Fortunately enough, Derry's history is complete including maps: http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/U ... index.html

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

The direct link to the US Coast Guard's history in war site:

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_m ... index.html

This contains the very interesting history of the fighting in Greenland, amongst other things such as a lot of oral history, and accounts of individual actions.

U-550 continued taking on water and dipped lower within the sea. The surviving U-boatmen, realizing their submarine was doomed, first set their scuttling charges and attempted to abandon ship. The charges exploded quickly, and the U-boat quickly settled by the stern and then sank beneath the waves, trapping most of the crew within its hull. The destroyer escorts ceased firing and sailed in close to rescue the few survivors, men who they were attempting to kill only a few moments before. Joyce managed to pull thirteen German sailors from the water, including U-550's commander, but the rest of the U-boat's crew went to the bottom with their submarine. As the three destroyer escorts sailed back to the convoy, the Gandy's crew patched the damage they received when they rammed U-550. The now capsized Pan Pennsylvania lay against the horizon, a solemn reminder of just how deadly the Battle of the Atlantic still was. The smoking hulk was sunk by gunfire two days later.

One of the rescued U-boatmen, Heinrich Wenz, later died from his wounds. LCDR Wilcox conducted a funeral service and then committed Wenz's body to the sea (left). The convoy continued on to Britain, despite the loss of the Pan Pennsylvania, and arrived there unscathed. In a gruesome side script to the story, apparently some of the German crewmen survived the sinking of their U-boat in their forward watertight compartments. They attempted to reach the surface with their escape lungs, but unfortunately perished in the attempt. Their bodies were recovered floating off the coast a few days later, fueling speculation of Germans landing along the U.S. coast.

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

This one was found by Andy H.

http://www.bpears.org.uk/NE-Diary/index.html

The site is a diary from 1939 to 1945 on events in Britain's North-East (aka 'The frozen north' ). It also contains a history of ships built on the yards of the North-East, and is a fascinating regional events history of the war.

Wednesday, 14th March 1945 D2020

'SS Magne' (1,226t), a Danish merchantman, was sunk by 'U 714' off St Abbs Head at 55°51'12"N - 01°55'24"W.

After the attack on the 'Magne', 'U 714' was on patrol off St Abbs Head, when she was depth charged and sunk at 55°57'00"N - 01°57'00"W, by the 'Natal', a frigate of the South African Navy, on her maiden voyage from the Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson yard on the Tyne to Scapa Flow and hence to Tobermory, Isle of Mull. The 'Natal' was offering assistance to the destroyer 'HMS Wivern', which was standing by the survivors of the 'Magne', when her ASDIC (Sonar) detected the submarine. 'Natal' made two depth-charge runs on this contact after which wreckage and light oil came to the surface and the ASDIC contact vanished. It was assumed and later confirmed that the U-boat had gone straight to the bottom.

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

AHF Member Revellation pointed out his site on the German defense of Arnhem 1944 to me, and it is well worth visiting.

http://www.defendingarnhem.com/

Large parts of it are still under construction, but the available information is already quite interesting, including info on the Luftwaffe contribution to the battle, or the combat history of Schwere Panzerkompanie Hummel during the battle.

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

Thanks to fellow moderator Jon.G for providing me with some interesting links, some but not all of which cater to his particular fetish:

The site below is dealing with the history of the US Army Quartermaster liquid supply side, and contains some interesting articles on WW2 fuel supply in the US Army.

http://www.qmfound.com/army_petroleum_a ... istory.htm

The next site is dedicated to the memory of the 390th Bombardment Group (Heavy) of the USAAF. It contains some interesting first-person accounts and information on the unit. A well-done site.

http://www.390th.org/index.htm

Finally, the US Strategic Bombing Survey Site. This site has background information on the USSBS, which was a post-mortem aimed at analysing the damage done to the German war effort by strategic bombing.

http://www.ussbs.com/

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

Looking for something else, I came across this site, which gives details including then-and-now pictures of the V1 and V2 attacks on SE London.

http://www.flyingbombsandrockets.com

Marvellous resource for anyone interested in the topic, and very interesting for anyone who (like me) has lived in SE. I now apologise for any adverse remark I ever passed about the attractiveness of Lewisham town centre.

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

Thanks to JonS, I have come across the website of the quarterly journal Canadian Military History. While the journal has to be subscribed to, they are putting back issues online for free, in a continuing effort. I have already downloaded what appear to be some interesting articles, e.g. on Canadian destroyers in the channel in 1944, or on 5th Brigade at Verrieres Ridge by Copp.

http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwmsds/cmh/back%20 ... index.html

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

While the many were thanking the few, even fewer were busy trying to figure out how to follow Nelson's maxim that 'No Captain can do very wrong if he places his Ship alongside that of the Enemy' in an aircraft. The site below tells us a bit about it:

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/

It contains a very interesting aircraft database, of all aircraft flown by the Fleet Air Arm, with a bit of history, squadron information, and tech data. It contains histories of carriers, and a list of major carriers sunk by U-Boats. Very nice site, despite the annoying layout.

Together with this, I highly recommend the Blackburn Skua site. The Skua is a relatively little known aircraft, but it achieved a number of firsts in wartime aviation history:

1st German aircraft shot down in WW2
1st major enemy warship sunk by air alone
1st interception using ship-borne radar

The site also deals with its rather unfortunately named cousin, the Roc. It contains a lot of pictures, and a wealth of information, including some pilot memories.

http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/b ... n_skua.htm

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

Came across this one today looking for a Royal Navy history - it is Gordon Smith's website:

http://www.naval-history.net/index.htm

This is an absolutely astounding site, containing personal narratives, campaign maps, an index of RN ships lost at sea, and whatnot. Something to keep you busy for days, if you have an interest in the war at sea.

The quote below comes from a narrative of the actions of Support Squadron East at Walcheren in 1944:

The enemy fire was fierce, and was systematically hitting the small craft approaching the beach. One LCG, hit and on fire was abandoned on the beach, other craft were burning, sinking and exploding. With this heavy fire from the shore batteries, we were being annihilated rapidly. Some craft had already reached the gap in the dyke and were successfully landing the Marine commandos. LCH 269 received a very close shell off our stern, which really shook us up in the engine room. Shrapnel caused several holes in our bulkheads, and sea water spurted in. We used damage control plugs, conical wood plugs, to stem the water, and got a call from Commander Sellars asking if all engine room hands were OK? He also asked about the engines. I reported that all was fine. He said "for God’s sake keep those engines running".

http://www.naval-history.net/WW2Memoir-Walcheren.htm

Happy reading.

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

The site below is giving a good insight into the Norwegian campaign of 1940 from the Norwegian perspective, including fairly detailed information on the Norwegian army. Thanks to John Kettler from the BFC forums for finding it.

http://hem.fyristorg.com/robertm/norge/

One example of the first rate information is this full list of Norwegian navy vessels active during the campaign:

http://hem.fyristorg.com/robertm/norge/ ... ships.html

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

A marvellous site a fellow member of the BFC forums came across, details the history of British propaganda radio, Soldatensender Calais, and Soldatensender West, in a nice amount of detail.

http://members.aol.com/skywave48/aspidistra.htm

Happy reading!

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

An excellent website about the Flower Class Corvettes I came across today.

http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/contents.htm

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

A very clearly designed website found by Red Coat which contains a good deal of information on naval battles, including very readable descriptions of the major ship battles in the Atlantic in WW2.

http://www.bobhenneman.info/battlehistoryhome.htm

All the best

Andreas

[Andreas]

Don Kindell has begun an enormous project on the Royal Navy in WW2, Day-by-Day. Thus far he has made it to 1941.

http://www.naval-history.net/xDKWW2-3900Intro.htm

An excellent resource, thanks a lot to RichTO90 for bringing this to my attention.

All the best

Andreas